Mass Effect: Fragments
by minek68
Summary: The beginnings of my Mass Effect story. Only OC-s. Enjoy!
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

Severin wake up to a severe headache. He felt as if he'd been knocked on the head - by a krogan. The thought however, that he barely remembered the last night made him even uneasier. These parties begun to get more and more dangerous. Day by day his employer grew in his eyes: she put up well with the advertising campaign, even though Severin was sure, that some kind of drug was behind her seemingly infinite energy.

It hazely appeared to him, that he'd been talking to somebody at the bar, and that person'd been a woman and a great company. He looked around, then covered his face with his hands when he noticed the lilac clothes lying by the bed. _No! _– he thought. _Not this. You should never sleep with a client!_ Meanwhile he became aware of the surrounding noises, including those coming from the shower. He took the time to sit up – that wasn't a wise decision – and took a closer look at those clothes.

The tint was the same, but the fabric, the tailoring... _These are not the clothes of a turian._ He sighed in relief. _But whose then?_

'Morning cutie!' arms wrapped around his hip and he felt the pleasant touch of wet hair on his shoulders. Soft lips pressed a kiss against his right cheek. _Human!?_

He looked back. A very pretty young brunette was glaring back at him.

'Hi' the turian gasped heavily. 'What time is it?'

'It's afternoon already.' The woman let the towel slip off her body and started dressing. Severin tactfully turned away.

'What've I been drinking last night?' he asked the rhetorical question. In time he managed to recall some memories of the night. This woman had been the one that he started a conversation with at the bar, after he'd got fed up with the VIP party. 'Lily, right?'

'You remember. Surprising – you didn't seem sober last night.'

'Nevermind. With Kytha... you get tough in no time.'

'That's Kytha Valorian in the next room... !?' – Lily's eyes suddenly lit up, and her jaw dropped when she heard the name.

'And God knows who else.'

'You must have an exciting job! Escorting movie stars all around the places.'

'Dead boring compared to my previous one.'

'You mentioned that you worked as a merc in the Terminus. You don't seem the mercenary type though. 'Lily sat on the corner of the bed, still only in her undies. Suddenly a photo caught her eyes, that was standing on the night table. 'Who're these people?' she asked and before Severin could stop her, she took it from its place to get a closer look at it. 'Oh, I know this guy in the middle' she pointed at the man wearing N7 armor. The man looked a bit uneasy but also determined.

'From where?'

'I placated my room with his photoes when I was a teenager. I used to be his greatest fan 'Lily turned scarlet.

'Of William Drake, the war hero?' Severin could barely hold his laugh. _Typical Drake._

'Hey! Not all girls dream about pop stars! I think he's handsome ' she smiled. 'And the others? Who are they?'

'Do you always ask so much?'

'I'm just curious who you've worked with.'

'The asari next to Drake is Mirala. She used to be a Huntress then she became an eclipse merc. She's hard to get on well with, but I liked her nevertheless. Behind them is Adrien Adams, former Alliance soldier. His vocab misses the words: 'respect' and 'discipline' and he takes everything lightly. I've no idea how he got to be a soldier. Aaand that's Shane. We used to talk for hours, we watched movies... When we had some time to spare of course. She was somewhat like a turian. She's very thorough, determined and a workaholic.'

'I see you have a thing for brunettes. Human fetish?' - Lily mocked him playfully, noticing the caring look in the turian's eyes.

'Better than being a turian fetishist...'

'Dream on!' Lily sticked her tongue out. 'Please continue, you cocky turian.'

'That young girl is Sue, the deadliest teenager in the entire galaxy. All in all, she's quite discreet however.

'Did you stumble up on her in some gang?'

'You could say that.' Severin said in a dark tone. _That bastard got what he deserved. Slim-faced motherfucker, shame of the turian people._ 'That young woman with the cropped hair is Harriet. There's always a cigarette sticking out of her mouth. She used to call me handsome.' Lily must've liked the story, because she was chuckling silently. 'She was our pilot. I'd served eleven years in the military, but even that couldn't prepare me for the manouvers she'd pull out of her hat.'

Severin eyed Lily's face contemplatively. She still didn't show any sign of boredom.

'That black-haired woman is Dr. Andrews. She was always very cold and reserved. She could be trusted, but her secretive ways... Strange person. That's Kelly beside her, the doctor's assistant. She's a bit naive, but a very nice and helpful girl. The qurian at the very end, who is barely visible is Shia'Xen. She's very smart, and astonishingly nice, good-natured and sincere. She liked everyone, even though she was more comfortable with machines I think. The one, who she's hiding behind is Bruce. They were like brother and sister. Bruce's a good guy too, but he's as skilled as a handful of pebbles, if we're not talking about machinery.'

'They must have been a fascinating company. No wonder you feel bored nowadays. But why did you leave that blonde man out?

'He is Conrad. He'd been an ex-merc. One with dignity, that's rare to find' Severin's voice turned more serious and pain took the place of the nostalgic shining on his face. 'He fell, when the Collectors hit Horizon.'

Lily hugged the turian, who'd been drifting away in his memories for a short time.

'Do you miss them?' she asked. 'Silly me, of course you miss them.'

'I think about them every day.'

Lily pressed another soft kiss on his face, then stroked him gently with her hand.

'Then I hope you get to see them soon.'

Severin returned the gesture, he held the girl's face in his hand.

'Sev! Where are you!' the sound of a very upset turian woman found its way into the room.

_Kytha and timing..._ Severin sighed resignedly.

Severin walked out of the bathroom, then as was his custom, he turned the news on. Since he'd gotten back to the civil life, he regularly watched them, even if he felt fifteen years older because of it. Sometimes he paid attention, other times it only served as background noise, so that something was muttering in his ears.

The same old evening news: a couple of murders, the exchange, politics and meaningless filler stories. Just what he expected. While he was looking for his clothes however, he caught a glimpse of Palaven on TV, the central parliment of the Hierarchy more precisely. He fixed his eyes on the screen and put the voice back on the broadcast.

'... because it's already the third turian warship, that'd been attacked while on patrol duty on the periphery of the Terminus, Palaven held out the prospect of punitive sanctions. At the time of our broadcast there is no news whether the Council is for the decision, but according to our experts the patience of the Citadel has come to an end and it's going to back up the Hierarchy's plan on the matter.

_Spirits! What else can come?_

'... and if neccesary we're going to retaliate. This act is the proof, that peace is not in the interest of some of the political players of the Terminus.'

_Damn it!_

The next pictures however overwhelmed him entirely. The security cameras of the ship had recorded the first minutes of the attack. On the pictures soldiers wearing uniforms attacked the crew, using sleeping gas. It wasn't the attack that shocked the turian, but the uniforms, that he was so well acquinted with. The mercs under the emblem of a red, open palm had vanished from the Terminus years before. They must have been...

_But there is no such thing as ghosts!_

Severin put on his clothes quickly, then took his travelling bag out of the closet and started throwing his other stuff into it. While packing, the picture on the nightstand also got into his hands. He nearly threw it after the others, but something stopped him. A pale smile appeared on his face. This situation reminded him on that time, when a retired alliance officer left everything behind to pursue his unclear goals in the shadiest corner of the galaxy. He had no doubt, that his story was very similar to this one. He put the picture back to its place and sighed heavily.

_Don't rush into things!_

He unpacked his things, then started putting them back neatly in a slow pace. He pulled out a small box from under his bed. He opened it, and removed a worn-out pistol from it. The standard military grade gun was too cumbersome for a bodygurad, so it had not seen use for a long time. Severin held it in his hand and the complex mechanism moved the barrel to it's place. _So it's still functional. _ Common soldiers only used this kind as supplementary weapons, but for him it was more then enough. His biotics could take care of anything that'd been too great to shoot to death. He gently put down the gun on the nightstand, and went on with packing.

Meanwhile he managed to book a seat with his omnitool on the morning plane destined to Illium. He put the things he had to leave behind at the care of a friend, then he messaged all his acquintances that could've been in the near proximity of the happenings. By the time he finished packing up, everything'd been put in order.

There was only one more thing to deal with. More accurately: a nice, attractive human brunette... _I'm sorry. There are things, that I have to deal with._


	2. The Banshee (part1)

**2183 A week after the attack on the Citadel**

The scorching heat of the Tranquility sun was unbearable: far from the beaches and luxury hotels, there was no shelter. Not even here, in the shadows of a thousand dormant starships. For this was a graveyard: hundreds of ships came here each year, for disassembly, repairs, or to simply rot here for eternity. This was the Terminus after all where selling used starships was just a respectable profession as slave trading, or smuggling drugs. The three guests didn't seem satisfied though. As for Shane, she was clearly disappointed.

After a firefight in a casino, she had to bear the long hours of walking in the heat and the company of the most insufferable lieutenant the Alliance could offer. This wasn't the worst day of her life, but it was pretty close.

"There isn't anything useful here. This is pointless." Said Shane. "Lieutenant your superiors really could have thought of this."

"We were informed, that the captain had a ship." He looked at Will, who was busy inspecting a shuttle "Also there is a shortage of Normandy class frigates right now."

"It shipwrecked on my last job. Also it wouldn't be suitable for our mission." Said Drake, turning back to his team.

"Than this one certainly wouldn't be suitable." Said Adrian with a huge grin.

"Enlighten me Lieutenant: what abilities are we looking for in a ship? I don't think we would end up engaging in direct confrontation with a whole war fleet."

"Enlighten me Miss Spencer: apart from your looks what skills do you have that are crucial to the success of our mission? I don't think that..."

"Stop, both of you! That's an order! Miss Spencer what do you know about pirate ships?"

"Just what your average Jane would know: they are fast, maneuverable and capable of atmospheric flight. They also have weapons for ship to ship combat, but boarding actions are far more common."

"That average guy just hit the point: we will need a small, fast ship preferably built for military use. Armed civilian freighters are useless."

"And do you believe we would find one here?"

"This is the largest graveyard of ships in the whole Terminus systems. If we won't find one here we could always beg some kingpin to give us one."

"This sucks." said both Shane and Adrian.

The trio went on with their search, but they did not find anything useful. It seemed that every space capable vessel had a buyer even before it arrived here. The pointless wandering around started to wear down on Shane's nerves.

"We are stuck here forever!" she said with anger.

Adrian took a look at her, from head to toe, with a giggle, but when Shane's ice cold gaze met his, he decided that it would be wise to stay quiet this time. But Drake also heard Adrian.

"Lieutenant what's your professional opinion of the situation."

"It isn't worth a penny sir."

"LT?"

"We have the option of selling Shane….Sir. Although I don't think she's worth the price of a ship. Sir."

Drake did not say a word just turned around and left the two of them standing there. He suddenly stopped: with his trademark smirk showing on his face he gestured the others to come.

"I think this would be perfect."

Adrian smiled, wider than he ever did, but Shane looked with surprise and awe. Finally she was the first to spoke.

"This is a geth ship." She didn't like the ship that much it seemed.

"This is the best we could find so far. And I would pay to see the council's face as we approach the Citadel in this beauty."

"That is if those overzealous turians don't shoot you down before that."

"I like it. Geth ships are agile, fast and durable. Although I heard that they are noisy and this one needs a lot of modifications. Geth ships lack life support, living quarters, seats or windows."

"Those things are overrated anyway." said Shane.

"But we will have ample space. And we don't really have a choice."

Agent Spencer noted with a deep sigh.

_Great. The boss already decided that I'll spend the rest of my life in this tin-can. At least those years wouldn't last long if we meet someone who practices the "shoot first, ask later" policy._

They walked closer to the spaceship but it disturbed Shane more and more as they got closer.

"The fact that a whole bunch of these things nearly destroyed the Citadel a week ago doesn't make you even a bit uncomfortable?"

"Nope." – said the two men in unison.

"Ok. You won!"

As they arrived they saw a huge man, with tattooed arms, trying to put a covering panel back to its place. He was whistling some trashy pop song and seemed completely oblivious to them.

"Hello." – said Drake.

"Hi! Can I help you? You must got lost it's not healthy to just roam in this place." He shook hands with Drake. "Name's Bruce."

"I'm William Drake these are my comrades, Shane Spencer, and Adrian Adams."

"Hi. Are you Alliance or something? I recognized that symbol on your armor. That commander had a similar one, what was the name…"

"Shepard?" Said Shane with clear sarcasm in her voice.

"Yeah Shepard!" Bruce sounded genuinely happy.

"We were soldiers…once. Is this ship yours?"

"No! It's too much even for the boss and for me…"

"Who are you and what are you doing here?"

The question came from a young quarian girl, holding a gun at the trio further emphasizing her mistrust.

Half an hour later, they all stood in the would-be mess hall – or something like that - of the geth ship. Bundles of cables hung from the walls, and the appliances were strangely clean and new in contrast to the mess left from the retrofits. But Shane wasn't really interested in the ship.

"So Shia'Xen you were born on that Caliban, the old alliance lab ship? My parents served on that ship when I was born."

"You were born on the Caliban?" Shia asked with clear surprise.

"Yes. I don't remember that much of it though. I was very-very young then." A coy smile showed up on Shane's face.

"I really liked it. It's an old pile of scrap but it gave that ship certain…charm. I like everything that flies especially these old ones. I've never thought I would meet a human who was born on the same ship as me."

"Neither did I."

"And Shia, how did you find this ship?" asked Drake.

"I heard that this was the largest scrap-yard in the Terminus so I came here. This seemed like heaven for a junk maniac like me. Then one day when I had been wandering around I saw it. The geth had been lying here for a long time but nobody really cared about it. I found it mostly intact. I'd welcomed the challenge."

"We met in a bar not far from here. Boss heard of me from a friend, and came to ask for my help. She did not want me to realize what she was doing before she clarified that I could be trusted. So it took me five minutes to realize that she was talking about a spaceship and she needs my help."

"I was a bit obscure yes."

"Just a little bit?" – asked Adrian, with his cynical smirk.

"When she finally cut to the chase I couldn't say no. I did some hard work, but this, was, the challenge."

"I have one final question then: can you pilot this?"

Shia's worried expression was obvious even behind her mask.

**2183 9 days after the attack on the Citadel**

Drake and Adrian were lying on deckchairs out in the open. This was the most famous, most exclusive bar here, with cocktails, a hot tub and a swimming pool too! Of course the swimming pool was too small to actually take a swim in it, and the waiter was a grumpy batarian rather than a half-naked blonde chick, but in Adrian's opinion it was worth the price for having drinks on top of a wrecked batarian destroyer.

He was enjoying the sun: he knew he would pray the price soon, (his pale skin didn't tolerate prolonged sunbathing well) but for now, it was fantastic. Meanwhile Will was busy communicating with the outside world. He had that worried look on him, which Adrian normally didn't give a damn about but he could understand the captain's worries. Getting stuck on a planet in the Terminus system wasn't a charming option. Maybe on Illium.

As they were lying there, a young woman showed up, asked something from the shopkeeper then set off for them. Adrian eyed the woman from her half-shaved hair, her ragged leather-jacket to the military grade boots. A quick survey never hurts. By the time she ended up beside them he returned to stare at the impossibly blue sky.

"William Drake?" asked the woman.

"It depends on who's asking." Adrian said with a wide grin, while he continued examining a lone cloud.

"Yes I am William Drake. How can I help you?" The captain's face was buried in his hands.

"My name's Harriet Jones" – the woman offered her hand for Drake, who took it – "I've been looking for you since I heard that you arrived. This place is way too boring to my liking and I'm looking for something new and exciting."

_That's for secrecy. _

"And what makes you think that I'm the right person to ask Ms. Jones?"

"Come on! You are a goddamn war hero and a living legend! You are up to something big, and flashy and fun. No matter what you're planning to do it would be much more exciting than working for batarian smugglers. And please, call me Harry."

"And what do you do exactly out here Harry?" Said Adrian, but still didn't look at the woman.

Harry pulled out something from her backpack and it landed in Adrian's lap. It was a helmet in alliance blue color, with three ship silhouettes, and a sign on it: Flight Lieutenant Harriet Jones. On the back of the helmet great white letters stood: _Dirty Harry_.

"I can pilot any ship you can find in this shithole."

"I won't bet on that right now." – Adrian finally took of his sunglasses and turned to the woman.

"I guarantee that you haven't piloted anything like this before. Believe me." Drake added, with a small smirk.

Harry's jaw dropped. She searched for a cigarette in the pocket of her jacket, but she missed the opening three times in row.

"No human being, have piloted a ship like that. This is insane!"

"So are you in?"

"Whatever you're planning to do, I'm game. Just tell me who I have to fuck to take it for a round."

"She has my vote captain."

Shia was worrying that was plain to see. But Harry did not seem to notice the quarian girl's fright when she lit up a cigarette in the mess hall. Shia held up Will while the pilot moved up to the cockpit.

"Are you sure, bringing her here is a good idea?"

"I trust her skills. And we don't really have a choice."

"She's crazy! Keelah she's smoking on a space-ship!"

"If what you said about this ship is true, a sane pilot won't do."

"Hey Xen, would you come here for a minute?"

"I'm going." Shia turned back to Drake. "I hope your instincts are right."

"So, what can you tell me about this beauty?" Harry was busy configuring the holographic interfaces for her.

"Geth ships in general are swift and agile machines. Ships this-size, have no chance catching us, except some asari and turian hunter ships. But you won't find those in the Terminus. Most frigates are designed to gang up on larger prey well this is more like an air-assault ship. Our main gun is gone, but the ground support ones are intact. And this ship has the best ECM gear you could imagine. Don't ask I don't know where it came from. All I know it's some experimental asari technology. Combined with the remaining geth software…"

"Wait are you telling me, I'm sitting on an active geth right now?" Harry's horrified look was a bit surprising but completely understandable.

"That's a good question Shia."

"No! Of course not! Large part of the system self-destructed when it landed and I installed blocks so the remaining software can't produce a neural web."

"If you say so." – Harry's worries had gone as soon as it came, it seemed. – "And what can you tell me about our atmospheric capabilities?"

"This thing is like a brick. Only the mass-effect fields are holding it in the air and it's tricky to use them correctly. I couldn't get the hang of it. It's really not an easy feat to fly this thing."

"Okay, I got the message." Harry protested with both hands up, then her expression turned into a wide grin. "Can I have the car keys now?"


End file.
